ir 






'-^^2^^!^^ 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE 



THE UNION LITERARY SOCIETY 



OF 



MIAMI UNIVERSITY, 



AT ITS THIRTEENTH ANNUAL CELEBRATION, 



AUGUST 8th, 1838. 



J K BY JOHN C. YOUNG, 

President of Centre College. 







OXFORD: 

PRINTED BY W. W. BISHOP. 
1838. 




Class 
Book. 



J\< 'L \ 



Aa 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE 



THE UNION LITERAKY SOCIETY 



OF 



MIAMI UNIVERSITY, 



AT ITS THIRTEENTH ANNUAL CELEBRATION, 



AUGUST 8th, 1838. 



j^^y BY JOHN C.^ YOUNG, 

\p \yr President of Centre"College. 



OXFORD, Ohio: 

PRINTED BY W. W. BISHOP. 

18 38. 



i ^^^ 




Union Hall, August 9, 18S8, 
Rev. Sir :— 

In the name of the Union Literary Society, we tender to you their 
sincere thanks for the very eloquent and appropriate Address dehver- 
ed before them yesterday afternoon ; and solicit a copy of the same 
for pubhcation. Very respectfully, 

Yours, 



Rev. J. C. Young. 



B.W. CONOVER,; 
R. H. SMITH, 
HENRY SNOW, ' 



Com. 



Danville, October 20, 1838. 
Gentlemen:— 

I have written off, as soon as my circumstances would permit, the 
substance of the speech of v/hich you requested a copy, f^nly 
regret that the truths which it exhibits, have not found an abler 
advocate. 



JOHN C. YOUNG. 



Messrs. Conover, Smith & Snow. 



I- 



ADDRESS. 



RECTITUDE IN NATIONAL POLICY ES- 
SENTIAL TO NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 



Our national existence commenced under circumstances ad- 
mirably adapted to fasten upon us a lively and abiding convic- 
tion of the worth of national justice, — to make us a people who 
would love righteousness, and hate oppression. A long suc- 
cession of inJAiries, under which we had appealed and remon- 
strated in vain, forced us reluctantly into an assumption of 
independence. The evils under which we had, for years, 
patiently groaned and petitioned, as well as the aggravated 
horrors of an unnatural war, endured during our struggle for 
freedom, had all been felt to be the bitter consequences of a 
want of rectitude in the people with whom we had been con- 
nected. Thus the moral deformity of national injustice was 
impressively exhibited to us in our own sufferings, while its 
impolicy was as strikingly visible in the loss to its contemners 
of millions ot subjects and an empire of territory. 

When we had come forth from the trying contest and as- 
sumed our position among the nations of the earth, we felt and 
acted as those who believed, that there was a God in heaven 
who judged nations as well as individuals; that there was 
reality and force in moral distinctions; and that the laws of 
virtue and religion, bound men no less strongly to obedience 



when acting collectively as a people than when acting separate- 
ly as individuals. An enunciation of important political 
truths, — a declaration of the inalienable rights of man, was not 
then regarded as a rhetorical flourish, — but as an exhibition of 
the universal principles on which constitutions should be 
framed, laws enacted, and administrations conducted. Acting 
in conformity with these views and feelings, our fathers 
framed the constitution of the Federal Government and their 
various State constitutions, on those just principles, which have 
made the career of our nation an astonishment to mankind. 
In the influence of these prmciples and the policy flowing from 
them, is to be found the cause of our unparalleled prosperity. 
Physical advantages equal, or nearly equal, to ours have been 
enjoyed by other nations — but freedom of conscience, equal 
political and civil rights, a foreign policy generally pacific, a 
legislation aiming to promote the interests of all, an abolition 
of all exclusive and invidious social privileges, as primogeni- 
ture and hereditary rank, with provision more or less ample, 
in most parts of our land, for popular education, — these con- 
stitute a combination of propitious moral causes, such as never 
before acted on any people. In but one point our forefathers 
failed to carry out the principles of justice — and that solitary 
failure, the extent and permanency of whose consequences they 
could not have foreseen, we all now regard as the chief source 
of danger to our prosperous Republic. 

The days of the revolution have now long gone by, and the 
generation, who learned the lessons so forcibly taught in those 
days, have been gathered to their fathers. A new race has 
sprung up — and many things in our present history remind us 
of what befel the Israelites after their miraculous deliverance 
from Egypt and settlement in Canaan. " The people," it is 
recorded, " served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the 
days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the 
great works of the Lord, that he did for Israel — but there 
arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord, 
nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And they 
forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out 
of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of 



the people that were round about them.^' The lessons of ex- 
perience are always more impressive than those of tradition — 
and, like the Jews of old, we are in danger of forgetting or 
disregarding the principles of our fathers. Cradled as we are 
in abundance, unpractised in self-denial, unawed by superior 
power, it would not be strange, if that prosperity which has so 
often ruined nations as well as individuals, should prove our 
destruction. There is a growing disposition evinced among us 
to adopt those courses of public policy, which seek their justi- 
fication not in rectitude but in expediency. Unless this tendency 
be counteracted, we must perish in our own corruption. Could 
however, the educated youth of our country, as they issue, 
year after year, in successive bands, from our halls of learning, 
carry with them, amid their stores of scientific and literary 
knowledge, sound principles of political morality, to govern 
their conduct as citizens and statesmen, the clouds that lour on 
our horizon would soon be dispersed, and our sun would shine 
brighter and brighter until the perfect day. You, gentlemen, con- 
stitute a portion of that class whose influence will soon shape the 
course of our policy. Though you will not all be statesmen, you 
will all be citizens — and your habits of reflection and reason- 
ing, as well as your acquisitions of knowledge, will give weight 
to your opinions and actions, in whatever stations you are 
placed, and on whatever subjects you are called upon to speak 
and to act. I avail myself, therefore, of the opportunity which 
your invitation has furnished, to aim at some higher object 
than the mere gratification of your literary taste. I shall feel 
fully wsatisfied if, by a simple and brief discussion, I can succeed 
in lodging in your minds, as a practical maxim for your guid- 
ance in future life, the great principle that. Rectitude in na- 
tional policy is essential to national prosperity. 

This is not a new truth which we are endeavoring to brins: 
to light — it is one which Demosthenes, long since, recognized, 

when ne exclaimed, ^^ Ow yo^f ia-nv- — cvk io-nv, a> «v/^2? A^iivam, itJ'iKOvvrA, 
K^i STTiopKouvra, Kcti '^iCSojusvov, J'uva/uiv j2iCciiAv KTyiTAerQcu' ctKKo. TO. roiavrct ii(juiv ctTrat 
KAi ^f>cf^vv ;i^povov diVTi')(ii' Koii TtppoS'ct ys nvbup-iv iiTt T2i/f sKTrKTiv, OM rv^n' rce "yrnon cTi 

CpapctTAt, TtJ.1 TTipt dLVTA HATUppil. ClCTTrip yctp OIKIAC, OlJJ.Cil, Kit TTKOlOV, KXt TftV Cf.AKm TOdV 

■^oiovtm-, ret KdrceQiv Kr^vporctra. i:vai J'si, ouTce x-ai rav Trpa^icev Tag ctp^ac Kal rag vtto- 

.Bio-UQ aKuBiig KM S1K0.1A? aval Trpoa-mei,' It is the Same truth which a greater 

1* 



than Demosthenes announced, when, by the inspired penman, 
he recorded the maxim, "Righteousness exalteth a nation; but 
sin is the reproach of any people.^' Unfortunately, however, 
the great portion of manldnd in every age, the wise and noble, 
as well as the mean and ignorant, seem to have never discover- 
ed it. Every moral truth suffers occasional obscuration, — our 
self-interest, at times, intercepts its rays and shuts out its light 
from our eyes. But there are some truths which labor under 
an almost perpetual and total eclipse. This is one of the 
number; for luminous as we trust it will appear to us, those 
who control the destinies of nations rarely show signs of its 
recognition. Rulers and people have seldom acted as though 
they believed that, in questions of policy, justice should be the 
rule of their conduct. The atrocious sentiment, so long and 
so universally avowed and acted upon as a maxim of inter- 
national law, that " nothing which is expedient is unjust,'^ 
seems to have influenced nearly the whole internal as well as 
external policy of nations. Whatever advantage could be 
gained, through intrigue or force, by one people over another, 
or by one class of the same people over a different class, they 
have felt themselves authorized to seize. The ordinary laws 
of morality have been considered as inapplicable to political 
transactions; and a man is often considered an unimpeachable 
statesman, who, if he conducted his private business on the 
same principles which govern his political course, would be re- 
garded as base and flagitious — would be branded with infamy, 
and cast forth in scorn from society. To lie, and cheat, and 
plunder, in behalf of himself or any other individual, will 
consign a man to disgrace and punishment — to perpetrate the 
same crimes, in behalf of a nation, will entitle him to honors 
and rewards. Wholesale swindling and robbery are honorable 
and commendable, while swindling and robbery by retail are 
mean and execrable. Vice is seen to be deformed and vile 
only when it is contracted in its dimensions — when it covers a 
country and rises to mountain heigh th, it acquires, in many 
eyes, a grandeur, which hides its deformity. 

Codes of morality have been adjusted to this corrupt theo- 
ry — general principles of right have been drawn from the 



flagitious usages of statesmen — and on the absurd plea that God 
has not given any directions for regulating the conduct of men 
in their public and most important acts, they have invented a 
diplomatic Bible, based on principles earthly, sensual, and 
devilish — a code whose rules of duty recognized not the rights 
but the mights of man. 

In looking at the history of international law and the science 
of legislation, we are not, however, without encouragement. 
We can observe some amelioration both in principle and prac- 
tice, arising, partly, from the extending influence of christian 
morality working its way into every department of life; part- 
ly, from the clearer perception of the impolicy of iniquity, 
which the world is daily acquiring from experience — and we 
cannot but hope, in spite of our own national defections, that 
the time is not distant when it will be universally held, that 
the maxims of expediency are as unwise as they are sinful; 
that the choice of proper objects of policy and the adoption of 
moral means for their attainment, are indispensable to a nation's 
prosperity. 

It would, indeed, be strange, that under the dominion of a 
wise and almighty, as well as holy, Being, the course of recti- 
tude should not be the course of success, — it would be strange, 
that He who created all objects, endued them with their pecu- 
liar properties, and fixed their laws of operation, should not 
have created such a harmony between the natural and moral 
world as to ensure a decided and permanent advantage to those 
who respect his authority, seek his direction, and submit to 
his commands. Though it is inconsistent with the nature of 
our present state of trial that either individual or national 
transgressions should be, immediately and invariably, follow- 
ed by a just recompense of reward, still our belief in the good- 
ness of the Ruler of the universe, unsupported by any other 
argument, would lead us to the firm conclusion that he would, 
even here, encourage virtue and frown upon vice, in the very 
arrangements of nature, and that his ordinary providential ad- 
justments w^ould warn men of the folly of disobedience, and 
foreshadow the thick horrors of eternal retribution. It would 



8 

require strong reasons to iriduice m us the belief that the prin- 
ciples which God approves will not conduce to man's highest 
enjoyment even in this life,, and that the principles which he 
abhors will not ruin those who adopt them. 

We are not, however, left to infer from the attributes of the^ 
Divine Sovereign, the issues of that rectitude, which consists 
in the pursuit of the proper objects of national policy and the 
adoption of virtuous means for their attainment. "Do unto- 
others as ye would that they should do unto you" — and " thou, 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," are precepts of the Divine 
Lawgiver, as capable of application by nations as individuals^, 
and their observance in public policy constitutes national rec- 
titude. We shall endeavor to point out the various modes in' 
which the observance of these principles exerts a benign influ- 
ence in developing and fostering all the elements of national 
prosperity. 

A nation is truly great and happy, when it possesses an in- 
dependent existence, the respect of mankind, wealth, intelli- 
gence, morality and religion. These then are the elements 
of national happiness, and on each of these does the adop- 
tion of sound moral principles, in the guidance of public afiairSy 
exert a powerful and salutary influence. 

1. Political rectitude does much to secure to a nation its 
independent existence. " The bloody and deceitful man shall 
not live out half his days," is the assertion of holy writ — not 
a prophecy, but an inspired declaration of the natural conse- 
quences of all falsehood and violence. The turbulent and in- 
triguing, whether nations or individuals, are ever engaged in 
schemes which excite animosity, bring them into collision with 
others, cause their existence to be regarded as a nuisance, and 
often produce combined and protracted efforts for their des- 
truction. They are constantly tempting their fate, for the 
failure of any of their plans is the signal for onset to all who 
watch and long for their downfall. The ambitious policy of 
the Grecian Republics, and its unhappy result, are thus em- 
phatically recorded by an ancienthistorian, — '^Grcecide civitates, 
dum imperare singulss cupiunt, imperium omnes perdi- 
derunf — while each aimed at ruling, all became enslaved. 



And I know not that the annals of the world have ever shown 
a nation which has perished, that has not furnished, by its 
fraud, perfidy, or violence, the occasion of its own ruin. Na- 
tions are seldom so ruffianlike as to strike without a plausible 
pretext. By the very laws of our moral nature, strict integri- 
ty throws around its possessors a magic influence — it draws 
around them a charmed circle, which no one can approach 
without awe, which no one can overpass, for hostile purposes, 
without a sensible diminution of confidence and power — with- 
out a quailing of the heart and paralysis of the hand, that pre- 
pare them to be victims of their own iniquity. A country is, 
therefore, rarely harassed by aggressions, threatening its inde- 
pendence yet entirely unprovoked. When such a case occurs, 
the sympathies of mankind are usually enlisted in behalf of the 
innocent. The invader is abashed and scared back by the powers 
and remonstrances of an indignant world, which assail him, 
more and more fearfully, at every successive step of his ad- 
vance — he feels that his character will be blasted and his own 
existence imperdled by perseverance, for, bad as mankind are, 
he knows that every individual instinctively hates and repels 
all injustice but his own. 

But independently of this double shield of apprehension and 
sympathy which a nation's rectitude opposes to all assaults up- 
on its independence, there are internal powers of resistance, 
fostered and strengthened by a righteous policy, that will ena- 
ble it to repel almost any force that can ever be brought against 
it. Livy, in detailing the amount of troops raised and sent 
forth, for several successive years, from certain small districts 
of Italy, guards against the incredulity of his readers, by re- 
minding them, that in those early days of independence and 
economy, multitudes of freemen subsisted on spots, which, in 
his time, supported only small gangs of slaves. The system of 
domestic bondage had not then spread over the land, impov- 
erishing the soil and wasting its inhabitants. Had Italy, in the 
days of the Empire, contained the same amount of population, 
which it nourished in the early ages of the Republic, the wave 
of barbarian invasion would never have swept over its fair 
fields. Before it could be subjected to a foreign yoke, the 



10 

number of its inhabitants had been diminished by a policy, that 
subverted the first principles of justice. Nor is numerical 
weakness the only mischievous consequence of this policy. 
An oppressed class can never feel that their interests are iden- 
tified with their country's independence; for her subjugation 
only changes their masters — it only shifts the rod of their 
oppression into other hands. In resisting invasion, then, their 
efibrts will be feeble, as must ever be the efforts of men who 
feel that they are defending the property and rights of others^ 
not their own — the property and rights, too, of others who are 
withholding from themselves what is justly their due. But 
when the rights of all are protected, and the interests of all 
promoted, national subjugation is regarded by each individual 
as involving his personal degradation, as well as the destruction 
of all his hopes and enjoyments. When the foundations of a 
people's existence are thus laid in righteousness, they can 
scarcely ever be overturned. There is a deep and unquencha- 
ble spirit glowing silently and secretly in the heart of every 
citizen, drawing sustenance and energy from every strong prin- 
ciple of our nature, which flames up at the approach of an in- 
vading foe, and defends the country like a wall of living fire. 

Earth has been the scene of many revolutions. Empire 
after empire has risen and moved in splendid pageantry across 
the stage of existence — each has become enfeebled, not by its 
increasing magnitude, as is sometimes falsely imagined, but by 
its increasing iniquity; and each has been driven into darkness 
and the abyss by a successor, stronger, because, for the time, 
less corrupt than itself. No nation has disappeared in whose 
history we cannot trace the moral causes of its destruction — 
we feel that it deserved to perish, for we can see the unjust 
principles of policy which naturally produced its catastrophe. 

2. The respect of mankind is an element of national 
prosperity secured by the observance of a righteous policy. 
Designed for social intercourse, we are so constituted as to de- 
light in the esteem and approbation of our fellow men. The 
views which others take of our characters, affect us so strongly, 
that no external advantages can compensate for their con- 
tempt or hatred — and it is even regarded as the highest efibrt 



11 

of virtue to risk the scorn of men for the approbation of con^ 
science and the friendship of God. As it is with individuals 
so is it with nations — the respect of men is an important item 
in the sum of those advantages, which constitute a nation's 
means of happi ness. It is not only a defence and security to 
national independence, but, it furnishes a real and elevating en- 
joyment to every individual of the mighty mass — each feels 
that his character is mingled with that of his country, and 
each feels ennobled by membership in a community that the 
world honors. 

Men may fear us for our prowess — they may court us for our 
capabilities of serving their selfish interests — they may admire 
us for our science, literature, or arts — but our integrity alone 
can command their reverence. There is a natural and involun- 
tary homage which all men pay to virtue — they feel its power 
and bow before its majesty — and they will honor those who 
are its true votaries, though they may themselves be too weak 
and depraved to join their respected band. Vice, when it 
wishes to be respected, must disguise itself, and assume the 
garb of virtue. Nations as well as individuals, have rarely the 
audacity to avow that they act on principles which justice ut- 
terly condemns. Rather than expose their conduct in its naked 
deformity, they will throw over it the flimsiest veil of sophis- 
try or cant — thus, even in the perpetration of iniquity, testify- 
ing indirectly, to the worth and nobility of rectitude. 

What are the records on the classic page of ancient Greece, 
which stir up our souls even in this distant age and clime? what 
are the recollections which, despite the superstitions and crimes 
of her children, make us feel that this ancient land is still wor- 
thy of a place in the eye and heart of mankind? They are 
the records and recollections of those rare but illustrious vin- 
dications of the great and noble principles of justice which 
were there witnessed — those occasional testimonies, often seal- 
ed with their blood, given by her statesmen and heroes to the 
rights of man. The breathing statues of Greece may be all 
defaced by time; her paintings, the triumph of art, may moul- 
der; her temples, once the glory of architecture, may be de- 
molished by barbarian violence or crumbled by the touch of 



12 

time, cumbering the earth with heaps of unsightly rubbish- 
still the memory of her Epaminondas and Timoleon, her So. 
Ion, her Aristides, and her Leonidas, will survive to consecrate 
the land. 

*' The waters murmur of their name ; 
The woods are peopled with their fame; 
The silent pillar, lone and gray, 
Claims kindred with their sacred clay; 
Their spirits wrap the dusky mountain, 
Their memory sparkles o'er the fountain; 
The meanest rill, the mightiest river. 
Roll mingling with their fame forever. 
Despite of every yoke she bears. 
That land is glory's still and their's ! 
When man would do a deed of worth, 
He points to Greece, and turns to tread. 
So sanctioned on the tyrant's head ; 
He looks to her and rushes on, 
Where life is lost or freedom won." 

Why is the British patriot proud of his country's untiring 
efforts, for upwards of thirty years, in the suppression of the 
detestable traffic in African slaves? Why does he point exult- 
ingly to the hundred millions of dollars paid by England to her 
West Indian colonists, to redeem 800,000 slaves from bondage? 
He feels that such sacrifices of temporary interest, in the vin- 
dication of the great principles of justice and philanthropy, are 
the brightest gems in the diadem of his country's glory. He 
feels that time will only improve the lustre of these exploits, 
while the increase of moral light will gradually pale the glories 
of her Blenheim, her Waterloo, and her Trafalgar. Acts like 
these will force their way, even through prejudice and rivalry, 
to the hearts of men, and will ever command their admiration 
and respect. Napoleon felt this, when he expressed his belief, 
that his active concurrence in measures for the suppression of 
the slave trade, would effect much in removing the deep-rooted 
dislike of the English towards him. How strong a testimony 
does the declaration of this eagle-eyed statesman bear, to the 
value of an exhibition of justice and benevolence, in concilia- 
ting the esteem of nations. 



13 

The sentiments expressed by mankind in reference to our- 
selves, teach us that respect ebbs and flows with the increase 
and decline of national virtue. The principles embodied in 
our constitution, presented us to the world as a nation whose 
whole existence and policy were based upon the acknowledged 
laws of justice; and our early career was consistent with these 
professions. Coveting the possessions and infrmging upon the 
rights of no other people, the steady aim of our government 
seemed to be, to secure the interests of all portions of our ex- 
tended community by measures honorable and just. The ef- 
fect of this exhibition was, to secure not only honor but imita- 
tion. Philanthropists in every land revered and extolled our 
nation, as one whose rise fixed the commencement of a new 
era in the history of man. The gospel of human rights was to 
receive its illustration and commendation in our career. The 
character of no nation ever conciliated so much esteem, and the 
conduct of no nation ever, in so short a time, exerted so happy 
an influence upon the world. And to what do those appeal 
who would now lower our character and lessen our influence? 
To our departures from the pure principles which we profess. 
The lawless cupidity with which we clutch the rich possessions 
of a weak and unoffending neighbor; the mob-violence which 
is permitted to stalk through the land destroymg freedom of 
speech and freedom of the press; the perpetuation, without 
serious effort for its removal, of a system of slavery that de- 
prives millions among us of rights which we have acknow- 
ledged to be inalienable; with our harsh and oppressive treat- 
ment of those dependent tribes whom -we have exiled from 
homes as dear to them as our firesides are to us — these are 
topics, on which the defenders of the abuses and iniquities that 
are perpetrated in other lands, dilate with exultation. "Art 
thou also become like unto us?" is the spirit of the jeers and 
taunts with which they assail us. Our past conduct is ascribed 
to the pressure of circumstances, not to the force of con- 
science — to the absence of temptation, not to the presence of 
virtue. No one acquainted with the recent |)oJitics and litera- 
ture of Europe, but has felt, and if he is % patriot or philan-. 
thropist, has deeply lamented, that our oat^ojial, Qharacter h^ 
2 Y A 



14 

suffered greatly from the relaxation of our principles. We are 
looked upon as a nation that is fast descending from the lofty 
moral eminence which we once occupied. 

3. Political rectitude augments national wealth. When 
the internal policy of a people is regulated according to the 
principles of justice, the activity, energy, and economy of 
every class in society are developed to the utmost; as each 
citizen is protected in his property as well as person, by those 
judicial and political safeguards, which enable him to feel that 
the acquisitions of his industry are securely his own, and that 
they can be alienated from him only by his own voluntary act. 
No sense of insecurity damps his ardor in the pursuit of pro- 
perty — no contrivances for concealing his growing w^ealth from 
the prying eye or withdrawing it from the rapacious hand of 
irresponsible power, distract his mind and divide his efforts. 
He plans and toils with energy and pleasure, for he feels that 
all his acquisitions belong to himself, and that he can transmit 
them securely to be inherited, after he is gone, by those who 
are dear to him as life. 

A righteous and wise legislation will effect much for a coun- 
try's prosperity by wielding the resources of government, not 
for the attainrnent of objects that merely gratify the pride of 
the nation or favor the interests of a few, but for the creation 
of new sources of national wealth or the removal of formida- 
ble obstacles to its accumulation. Plans for accomplishing 
these objects, while they are often too gigantic for individual 
enterprise, are within the easy grasp of national ability; and 
are productive, when executed, of immense and perpetual gain. 
If half the expenditures which have been lavished, in many 
enlightened countries, on schemes devised only for gratifying 
the rapacity of a privileged class, or rewarding the services of 
political partizans; for supporting standing armies, and favored 
religious establishments; for constructing and repairing fortifi- 
cations, and building ships of war, the necessity for which 
arises only from our adoption of principles the reverse of those 
we are advocating; — if half these expenditures had been in- 
curred in opening and improving channels of trade, and in 
fostering those arts and sciences, whose inventions and discove- 



15 

ries extract enjoyments for man out of objects naturally dis- 
gusting, and create wealth out of the dust, the picture of phy- 
sical beauty that would be now presented by these lands, would 
almost realize our conceptions of Eden in its early bloom. 

The political institutions of a country may be radically un- 
just, and productive of social arrangements of extreme ine- 
quality and oppression, yet its natural advantages may be so 
great as to yield, in spite of these counteracting causes, con- 
siderable wealth to its inhabitants. But even this inferior 
amount of wealth will be so distributed as to produce the least 
amount of human happiness. In a country whose political in- 
stitutions and social arrangements are thus at war with equity, 
a few are aggrandized, while the miJtitude are impoverished. 
Splendor and squalor look each other in the face, in hideous 
contrast— luxury and penury sit side by side, in mutual and 
dangerous abhorrence. The crash of society must inevitably 
result from this unequal pressure of tlie ills of life, and this 
unequal distribution of its enjoyments. The catastrophe must 
come sooner or later, for the haggard and oppressed multitude 
will not always remain quiet under evils from which they see 
others exempt, and in sight of benefits in which they never can 
participate. 

We may illustrate the influence of a righteous policy in giv- 
ing stimulus to the energy and scope to the enterprise which 
augment wealth, by comparing the annual products of a people 
whose domestic institutions are founded on the principles of 
justice, with those of another people whose institutions are 
founded on the principles of a temporary and wrongful expe- 
diency. Official returns show the annual product of Mas- 
sachusetts industry to be upwards of ninety-one millions of dol- 
lars. The avails of her commerce and sorhe of her chief agri- 
cultural operations, are not included in these returns; and if 
given, they would swell the amount beyond one hundred mil- 
lions. The cotton crop of the South, for the same year, was 
worth about sixty millions; and as all the other products of the 
cotton-growing region do not equal, in value, their staple arti- 
cle, we will overrate rather than underrate them, when we add 
forty millions to the value of the cotton crop to ascertain the 



16 

value of the whole annual product of the region. Thus we 
see that the annual proceeds of labor in Massachusetts and in 
the cotton-growing portion of the South, are about equal. But 
the population of Massachusetts was, by the last census, only 
seven hundred thousand, while that of the region, with which 
its products are compared, was two millions five hundred thou- 
sand. Thus, with inferior advantages of soil and climate, the 
population of Massachusetts raise more than threefold the 
amount of produce raised by an equal number of the inhabi- 
tants of seven States and one Territory in the South. We 
need not digress from our subject to explain the peculiar pro- 
cess by which this unjust policy works out its injurious effects. 
The ignorance, carelessness, and indolence of a servile class 
not only prevent the exertion of their own muscular powers to 
the best advantage, but also prostrate all efibrts to introduce 
successfully into the country they occupy, those numerous 
labor-saving machines, which, while they immensely increase 
the powers of man in every department of industry, require a 
degree of skill and attention for their management which 
can never be found among slaves. Take any other countries 
whose institutions thus contrast with each other — examine 
their censuses and the returns of their industry — and the re- 
sults of the comparison will be similar to those we have just 
exhibited. 

Another striking illustration of the cost of immoral policy 
is presented in the expenditures which mankind incur for war. 
Nations are very rarely obliged to arm in strict self-defence — 
and morality does not noiv pretend to justify war undertaken 
for any other cause than that of absolute self-preservation. 
Yet the great mass of expenditures, even in peaceful times, 
are for purposes of war. Great Britain, in her unrighteous 
attempt to retain our country in colonial subjection, lavished 
six hundred millions of dollars. In twenty years of war, end- 
ing in 1817, she spent, on an average, one million, one hundred 
and forty-three thousand four hundred and forty-four dollars 
(^1,143,444,) per day — the sum total of the war expenses of 
twenty years was upwards of eight thousand milhons of dol- 
lars, (^8,000,000,000.) And morality looks in vain for any 



17 

justifying cause of these costly hostilities — sagacity searches in 
vain to discover any real advantage which has been derived 
from them. The unjust policy of the kings and ministers of 
Europe, in interfering with the internal affairs of France dur- 
ing the progress of her revolution, — in attempting to hinder a 
free people from exercising the right of changing their form 
of government to suit themselves — this unjust policy kmdled 
a war which involved all Europe in its flames, and which raged, 
with scarcely an interval of abatement, for twenty-two years. 
The object of this war was not attained. France now enjoys 
a constitution as liberal as that against which the European po- 
tentates at first combined. But the attempt to gain their object 
cost the people whom they ruled, fifteen thousand millions of dol- 
lars. If the sum expended in these twenty-two years of war, 
could be heaped together in gold and silver,it would raise a metal- 
lic mound six or eight times the size of the pile that would be 
lormed by gathering together all the coin now circulating 
through the whole world. 

Nor is the infatuation, which produces this waste of wealth, 
confined to the cabinets of kings. Self-governed nations, led 
astray by a love of false glory, or a spirit of retaliation, pursue 
the same warlike policy, in defiance of the dictates of a sound 
morality. Our own expenditures for war, from 1791 till 1833, 
amounted to eight hundred and five millions of dollars (^805,- 
000,000,) — during the same period, our expenditures for the 
civil list amounted to thirty-seven millions of dollars (^37,000,- 
000.) Thus we paid more than twenty times the sum in pre- 
paring for war and carrying it on, during those forty-two years, 
that we paid in securing what are the great objects of govern- 
ment, domestic tranquility and the administration of justice. 
No moralist can justify, either on the principles of natural or 
revealed religion, the righteousness of the policy which has, 
for such an object, lavished this immense treasure. 

Our last war with Great Britain was undertaken to obtain 
from her the renunciation of "the right of search.'^ After 
spending hundreds of millions of dollars, throwing away 
thousands of valuable lives, and producing wide-extended des- 
truction of property and credit by the stoppage of our trade, 

2* 



18 

the burning of our towns, and the capture of our vessels, we 
at length concluded a treaty of peace, without having gained 
the object for which all this expenditure was incurred. We 
failed to obtain the recognition of the principle for which we 
fought. But " w^e obtained glory, ^^ say the defenders of this 
barbarous, wasteful, and anti-christian policy. And ivhat is 
this glory, that outweighs to a nation the value of hundreds of 
millions of dollars and the lives of thousands of its citizens — ■ 
that can make us forget or overlook the wasted treasure, the 
shed blood, the bitter tears, the corrupted morals, the blasted 
hopes, the helpless orphans, the desolate widows, that follow in; 
the train of war? Our glory consists simply in this — we suc- 
ceeded in convincing mankind that, when the British vessels 
met ours in' conflict upon the ocean, sometimes they struck 
their flag to us, and sometimes we struck our flag to them;: — 
that, when their soldiers met ours on the field of carnage, they 
as often fled before the charge of our bayonets as we fled 
before the charge of theirs ! ! The world has been made to 
see that in brute courage — in pure bull-dogism, we are at 
least equal to the British— perhaps their superiors ! Here, 
truly, is an object worthy of all our blood and treasure^ — here 
is glory enough for rational and immortal beings! ! ! 

Our Florida war furnishes another illustration of the cost of 
sin. This war. Waged against a feeble tribe of a few hundred 
Indians, has already cost our government twenty millions of 
dollars — a war undertaken to enforce the validity of a treaty 
extorted from an unwilling and dependent people — a war, in 
which, (to use the impious language of a defender of similar 
atrocities once perpetrated on ourselves,) we "have availed 
ourselves of the means which God and nature have put into 
our hands,'' by hiring hundreds of savage mercenaries to 
hunt down their unfortunate brethren, guilty only of the 
crime of loving and defending their homes and the graves 
of their fathers. 

4. National rectitude is promotive of national intelli- 
gence. The labor and ingenuity of man are far more than 
sufficient to supply all his physical wants; and if the intellect 
^f a people is not highly developed, their condition is attributa- 



19 

ble not to a deficiency of means, but to the waste of their 
means upon unworthy objects. Intelligence, indeed, and wealth 
properly applied, reciprocally produce each other. Wealth 
fosters and stimulates intellect, while intellect, as it expands, 
discovers new and superior processes for the creation of 
wealth. Whatever, then, perverts and wastes national re- 
sources, enfeebles and dwarfs the national mind by destroying 
the means of its nutriment. 

Now every nation has squandered in a single war, undertaken 
from no defensible motive, means sufficient to constitute the 
most ample fund for a permanent sj'stem of universal educa- 
tion, of a far higher order than has ever yet been projected. 
The sums expended, every year, even during peace, to keep up 
preparations for war, amount, in most nations, to, at least, five 
or six times as much as would be necessary to support a system 
of universal and most thorough popular instruction. Even 
our war-system, economical as we suppose ourselves to be, and 
limited as is our military establishment, costs us, during a pe- 
riod of peace, a far larger annual amount, than would educate, 
in a superior manner, all the children in our country. 

Does any one, however, say that there exists a necessity for 
this wasteful policy, and that it cannot therefore be considered 
as opposed to morality? There exists just such a necessity 
as urges an individual to move through society encumbered 
with bowie knives and percussion pistols, that he may be able, 
in a moment, to spill the blood of any one who may chance to 
wound his sensitive honor, or threaten him with the slightest 
molestation. The day will come, in which nations will no 
longer tolerate this absurd and immoral waste of millions of 
their money, annually, merely to secure themselves from those 
imaginary wrongs called insults, or even from those real in- 
fringements upon their valuable rights, which, experience 
teaches us, are more often settled satisfactorily by negotiation 
than by appeals to arms. The day will certainly arrive, in 
which we will feel that national disgrace consists, not in being 
swindled out of five millions of dollars by the dishonesty of a 
foreign power^ without taking up arms to recover our debt; but 
in permitting hundreds of thousands of our children to grow 



20 

up uneducated, without due efforts to imbue them with know- 
ledge — in which we will esteem it folly to plunge into a war 
that would probably cost us an hundred millions for the re- 
covery of a debt of jive; but wisdom to expend such a sum, 
in securing to all future generations, in our land, the benefits of 
an enlarged and virtuous education. Nations will not always 
squander for glory, what might elevate their offspring to in- 
telligence. Contempt would follow the father who w^ould 
dazzle the eyes of his neighbors by the display of a costly 
equipage, while he penuriously starved the bodies of his chil- 
dren at home, or stinted them in their means of intellectual 
growth; — and the day will come, in which principles of judg- 
ment will be applied to the conduct of nations, similar to those 
by which we now condemn the act of such an individual. 

Let us take another instance of the mind-smothering influ- 
ence of an unjust course of policy. The British constitution 
aims at securing to a privileged class a perpetuity of honors 
and wealth. The natural effect of this unrighteous system is, 
to remove, in a great degree, from the low^er class, the stimulus 
to effort, by diminishing the chance of success, and to convert 
them into the mere drudges and burthen-bearers of the higher 
order. Property is engrossed by a comparatively small set, 
and control over the legislation of the country is lodged in the 
same hands — as a natural consequence, extravagant expendi- 
tures are often incurred for objects utterly disconnected frooi 
the real interests of the bulk of the people, while upon them 
is thrown a disproportionate share of the heavy taxation, which 
necessarily follows governmental extravagance. Thus a large 
portion of the people, oppressed by taxes, and destitute of re- 
sources except such as are derived from their daily labor, are 
kept struggling for a bare existence, with neither motives nor 
means to procure for themselves or their children, the opportu- 
nity of mental culture. Nor does this system work to the in- 
tellectual advantage of even the favored few. Mental advance- 
ment is not promoted by the removal of all necessity for exer- 
tion. The British House of Lords compares disadvantageous- 
ly with our American Senate — and even those ot its members 
who best uphold its respectability, have almost all fought their 



21 

way up to the aristocratic rank from a lower sphere of life. 
Healthful blood, from an inferior class, must be occasionally 
infused into the veins of an aristocracy debilitated by over- 
nurture, to save it from utter imbecility. 

In our own country, we see that the existence of a servile 
class retards the progress of knowledge. In those sections in 
which an unjust policy has degraded human beings into proper- 
ty, the sparseness of a free population renders the establish- 
ment of a general system of education a difficulty that has 
never yet been overcome — perhaps we may say it renders it 
an impossibility . The early-acquired habits of the young, 
in such a state of society, are also generally repugnant to those 
salutary restraints of discipline, without which the best educa- 
tion cannot be given: and even if all the superior class could 
be imbued with a proper share of learning, the necessary and 
unmitigated ignorance of the slave population would render 
the community as a whole, greatly inferior in the amount of 
its intelligence to a community of equal size, all whose mem- 
bers were free and participated in the advantages of instruc- 
tion. In its best condition, a slaveholding community must 
present, in its intellectual aspect, the appearance of a globe, 
one of whose hemispheres must be always shrouded in dark- 
ness. 

5. The observance of the principles of justice, in their 
public acts and institutions, promotes private morality and 
religion among a people. The happiness of man depends far 
more on internal than external causes — "The mind is its own 
place, and in itself, can make a Hell of Heaven, a Heaven of 
Hell.'^ When a nation is composed mainly of virtuous and 
pious individuals, who strive to do unto others as they would 
that others should do unto them, who look up affectionately to 
God as their father, relying on his help, asking of him the 
blessings which they need, and expecting an eternal and bliss- 
ful home in the mansions which his love has prepared — that 
nation cannot but be happy. They possess the most essential 
element of enjoyment — that for whose absence nothing can 
compensate — that whose presence atones for the absence 
of all things besides. Can you make a man who is se- 



22 

cure of immortal bliss, unhappy, by the loss of earthly enjoy- 
ment? 

"What slave unblest, who, from to-morrow's dawn 
Expects an empire ? he forgets his chain, 
And, throned in thought, his absent sceptre waves. 
And what a sceptre waits us ! what a throne !" 

Can you make immortal man happy by bestowing on him all 
earthly enjoyment? As well attempt to light up the earth with 
tapers, in the absence of the sun — or water it without assis- 
tance from the clouds of the sky. The anticipated brightness 
of heaven throws a radiance over the darkest scene — confidence 
in the love and protection of God fills the soul w4th composure 
under the most harrow^ing calamities — and the fountains which 
are at God's right hand even now yield real delight, though we 
may feel that earth's springs are for us forever dried up. The 
Almighty himself has, indeed, guaranteed the happiness of a 
people that serve him, — "Blessed,'' says he, " is that nation 
whose God is the Lord." « God is in the midst of them they 
shall not be moved. God shall help them, and that right early .'^ 
Every act or system of national policy, whether relating to 
our domestic institutions or our foreign relations, exerts a power- 
ful though indirect influence on the principles and private con- 
duct of our citizens. If the policy be virtuous and noble, it 
elevates them — if it be immoral, it depraves them. The ope- 
ration of it is easily traceable. Those who manage affairs of 
state are placed in conspicuous and honorable stations — they 
are, from their official character, supposed to be men talented 
and upright, whose wisdom and integrity fit them to be guides 
to their fellow men. The measures, too, which they originate 
and conduct, are vastly more momentous than the transactions 
of private life. The principles, then, which these men adopt 
and apply, in the prosecution of their great schemes for further- 
ing national interests, recommend themselves to the adoption of 
the mass of mankind, by every consideration that usually 
sways their judgments. The talents, station, and reputation of 
the supporters of these principles recommend them — while 
the greatness of the interests involved, gives them universal 
notoriety, as well as forbids the idea that they would be ap- 



23 

plied without the most mature deliberation, and the fullest con- 
viction of their soundness and value. Thus immoral princi- 
ples, embodied in public acts, often become part of the popular 
creed, shaping, in some measure, the character and conduct of 
almost every individual. When, however, the principles are 
so clearly detestable that no for:;e of authority can blind the 
most ordinary understanding to their real character, their adop- 
tion in measures of public policy, though it cannot give them 
the color of virtue, still shields them from disgrace — perhaps 
the most dreaded temporal punishment of vice. The delin- 
quents are too high and too numerous to be visited with con- 
tempt — rank, talents, and numbers bear them up, and give a 
fictitious respectability to their principles. The odiousness of 
vice IS lessened by thus stripping it of its shamefulness. When 
the most distinguished men, acting in behalf of a community, 
perpetrate an act of immorality, w^ithout the rebuke or dis- 
avowal of those whom they profess to serve, acts similar in 
principle, perpetrated by individuals, will cease to be disreputa- 
ble—thus shame, one of virtue's best auxiliaries, is driven from 
her side. A government exercises over the individuals it con- 
trols, somewhat of a parental influence — and could we expect 
tlie members of a family to regard the obligations of honesty 
and truth, when they saw the parent, to whom they looked up 
as a model, breaking his promises, and appropriating by vio- 
lence or fraud the property of others? 

We have recently seen a large and powerful tribe of abo- 
rigines emerging fast from barbarism, acquiring a written lan- 
guage by the astonishing and unaided genius of one of its own 
untutored sons, fostering education, establishing a press for the 
diffusion of information, desiring the instructions of christian 
teachers and contributing to their support, accumulating pro- 
perty, and rapidly adopting the usages of civilized life — We 
have seen one of our sovereign States ejecting this people 
from their homes, seizing upon their lands with all their im- 
provements, parcelling out and distributing these lands by lot- 
tery among their own citizens, compelling their victims to ex- 
change the ground inherited from their fathers, the houses con- 
structed by their own hands, and the property gathered around 



24 

them for a far-distant and unimproved country which they had 
never visited, in which no preparation was made for their re- 
ception, and which they could only reach at the expense of 
much suffering and many lives — all this we have seen, without 
hearing any allegation of crime against the helpless qp^ 
pressed, for they had never been found in hostile array against 
the white man, but had fought by his side; and without hear- 
ing any claim of right on the part of the oppressors, that 
morality would not blush to present. What must be the effect 
of such a public act on the private morals of the community 
among whom it is perpetrated? Can any thing be conceived 
which would tend more powerfully to destroy conscience and 
legitimatize robbery — to impress every individual with the 
conviction that all love to our neighbor is either hypocrisy or 
fanaticism, and that the rights of others are to be respected 
only when they cannot be trampled upon with impunity? 

We receive or imagine that we receive an insult from a neigh- 
boring nation. At the cost of thousands of valuable lives and- 
millions of dollars, we proclaim war to avenge the injury and 
soothe our wounded pride. Can we expect that individual*^ 
will ever cease to arm against the lives of those who insult. 
them, as long as their nation sanctions, on fields of carnage, the 
atrocious principle that stains upon honor must be washed out: 
in blood? Does not every argument, which could be addressed 
to an individual to expose the absurdity and criminality of his^ 
course, show still greater folly and guilt attached to the course 
which his country publicly justifies and pursues? Da you ask 
him what injury he has sustained that can compare- with the 
disastrous consequences, which, even if successful,, he must 
bring upon himself and his family? But what, on the other- 
hand, is the harm inflicted on a nation by a trifling disrespect 
or a contemptible expression of malignity, on the part of a for« 
eign power, compared with the evil of sending woe into thou^ 
sands of families for the loss of parents, brothers and husbands — - 
of wringing from toil and penury, by heavy taxation, their 
hard earnings, to meet the immense expenditures of a system 
of wholesale robbery and murder — of supporting a body of ra- 
tional and moral beings, trained and set apart for the sole busi- 



25 

ness of maiming and killing others, against whom they have 
no cause of complaint, and towards whom they cherish no ani- 
mosity? 

The divine lawgiver prohibited the hire of a harlot from be- 
ing received in contribution for the service of his sanctuary; 
while, in some heathen countries, prostitution was licensed by 
law, and encouraged within the precincts of their temples, as 
a source of revenue to their impure deities. The one system 
dignified licentiousness by admitting her as the handmaid of 
religion — the other increased the natural odiousness of a detes- 
table vice by pronouncing its gams too infamous to be used for 
a holy purpose. The effects corresponded with their causes: 
chastity was observed and respected among the Jews — among 
those heathen it was almost unknown. Yet we find, often, in 
christian States, the proceeds of lotteries and liquor-licenses — 
the avails, in other words, of gambling and drunkenness — 
consecrated to education ^ The adoption of such a system 
displays more than the pelican's fabled affection for her young — 
she robs herself of her blood to sustain the lives of her off- 
spring, — we rob ourselves of our morals to enlarge the intel- 
lects of ours. Some of the districts of ancient Persia were 
called by the names of the respective parts of the queen's ap- 
parel, to the furnishing of which, their revenues were specifi- 
cally appropriated; — thus one region w^as known as the queen's 
girdle, another as her turban. On this principle of nomencla- 
ture, the venders of liquor might, with propriety, in some of 
our States, dignify their grog-shops with the title oi fountains 
of knowledge. They might urge men to patronise their es- 
tablishments on patriotic princijjles, and get drunk for the 
good of the rising generation. 

Does it not, now, seem strange that men so dupe themselves 
as to imagine that national interests can be promoted by an un- 
righteous policy, when such a policy requires, for its successful 
issue, that the Almighty should not only forbear directly to 
punish, and should M'ink at man's iniquities — but that he 
should even suspend the laws of nature, forbid effects to flow 
from their appropriate causes, and roll backward the ordinary 
course of events, to protect vice and do honor to disobedience? 
3 Y A 



26 

Is the declaration of the Ruler of the Universe trucy that 
" wisdom has length of days in her right hand, and in her left 
hand riches and honor'^ — that " her ways are ways of pleasant- 
ness and all her paths are peace?" Does an individual veri- 
fy its truth, when, in his small sphere, engaged in petty occu- 
pations, and aiming at inconsiderable personal ends, he acts in 
accordance with its spiritj and shall united millions find it 
false, when engaged in acts which spread weal or woe over a 
country, perhaps over a world, and extend in their consequences 
to remote generations? The life of man is subject to so many 
accidents, which may bring it to an abrupt and premature close, 
that, in regard to an individual, it cannot be always certain, 
that he will, in this life, "reap as he has sowed j" — he may not 
live long enough to eat of the fruit he has planted: but a na- 
iion^s existence, running, as it does, through many generations, 
is sufficiently prolonged to give scope for natural causes to work 
out their full and remote eflfects; so that of nations we may 
predict, with certainty, that "their sins will find them out." 
Temporary benefit, with ultimate and greater loss, is, indeed, 
so invariably characteristic of injustice, as to have been, by 
some philosophers, mistaken for its essence. How, then, can a 
nation hope for impunity in crime? And how can we expect 
permanent jDrosperity, while our policy is deviating more and 
more from that path of rectitude in which men, as men, 
whether acting unitedly as families and nations, or isolatedly as 
individuals, are bound to walk? 

YouNa Gentlemen op the Union Literary Society, 

The voice of flattery is melodious, and men naturally delight 
in its soothinff tones. Orators avail themselves of this infirmi- 
ty, and our national greatness and virtue — our exalted eminence 
over all other people, are so frequently and glowingly portray- 
ed, as to have almost persuaded us that " we are perfect and 
have need of nothing." The sound of their own praises is so 
familiar to the ears of our countrymen, that all allusions to their 
faults are discordant and ofiensive. I might have chosen a 
more pleasing theme on which to address you — but I could not 
have chosen one more useful. This perpetual self-laudation is 



27 

sickening and disgusting — and we are in danger of fostering a 
national vanity, that will make us ridiculous for our self-suffi- 
ciency, our pretensions, and our sensitiveness — that will effec- 
tually arrest our improvement, rivet our prejudices, perpetuate 
our immoralities, and bring down upon us judgments corres- 
ponding to the magnitude of our offences against the laws of 
heaven. We Tnay he — perhajis we are — the wisest and best 
people on the earth; but if so, earth has very poor specimens 
of national wisdom and virtue to exhibit. We are far off 
from perfection — and our deficiencies furnish us with a stronger 
incentive to humility, than our attainments to pride. We 
would be more wisely employed in discovering and removing 
those plague spots, symptomatic of decay and dissolution, 
which are here and there showing themselves upon us, than 
in admiring and adoring the lovely image of our own perfec- 
tions as held up to us in the flattering speeches of interested 
and time-serving orators— imitating the conduct of the fabled 
youth We read of in classic story, who sickened and died of 
self-love from contemplating his image in a brook. We can 
improve — we ought to improve — and I trust we ?^;^7/improve, 
until we present the world with a living picture of a truly ex- 
alted people. Providence has bestowed upon us every natural 
advantage which can give conspicuity and lustre to moral worth. 
Our extended territory, with its diversified and copious pro- 
ductions, will sustain a population of many millions; while 
our numerous rivers and far-stretching coast will enable us to 
carry our traffic and the knowledge of our character and insti- 
tutions to all the nations of the earth. In the lapse of a few 
generations, the time will come, when our forests will have 
disappeared, our present wildernesses be converted into gar- 
dens, our hills penetrated for ore or clothed with flocks, all our 
valleys covered with corn, our cities and villages so thickly 
studded over the land that the smoke of their fires will be visi- 
ble from one to the other — when the Rocky Mountains will 
look down upon our Eastern and Western coasts alike densely 
peopled, and when our population will be computed by hund- 
reds of millions. Then, if our policy in these intermediate 
years, shall have been heaven-directed and righteous, the throne 



28 

of God will be established in the midst of us, and there will 
arise, from this land alone, a thicker cloud of incense and a 
louder song of piaise, than have ever, at one time, ascended 
from earth to heaven. The holy calm of the Sabbath will rest 
unbroken upon every hamlet, and village, and city of an almost 
entire and populous continent. The temples of Jehovah will 
be crowded with millions of grateful worshippers, while our 
"peace will flow like a river, and our righteousness like the 
waves of the sea.^' And who can calculate the effect of our 
example on the world, as our many-winged commerce will, 
year after year, waft to all the kindreds and tribes of men, the 
knowledge of our character and our condition — our policy and 
our prosperity? 

Will not each of you, my young friends, lend his efforts to 
realize this picture? The hour will come to each of you, in 
which those objects that seduce men from the path of rectitude 
will lose their charms — in w^hich wealth and fame will be felt 
to be emptiness and vanity j — in that trying hour, while you are 
lingering on the confines of two worlds, with the visions of 
the one fading away and the scenes of the other acquiring dis- 
tinctness and reality — in that hour, and through the eternity 
on which you will then enter, it will be a consolatory and hal- 
lowed recollection, that you employed your talents and influ- 
ence, not to injure, but to bless your country — not to deprave, 
but to amend mankind. You and your compeers, the youth of 
this land, can knock off the shackles which impede the move- 
ments of this young and mighty Republic, and can enable her 
to rise to the pinnacle of true greatness. Will you suffer your- 
selves to be perverted from so noble an object, by the intrigues 
of party and the low aims of personal ambition? Or will you, 
as citizens and statesmen, aim at your country's moral glory — 
her true happiness? Were half the energies which are now 
wasted in partizan labors — in the struggles of able and ambi- 
tious men for political power and distinction, — consecrated to 
the cause of righteousness, our country would be redeemed 
from political corruption, — her free institutions would be per- 
petuated, — her wealth w^ould be augmented,-— her intelligence 
would be advanced, — her morals would be purified, — her reli- 



29 

gion would be deepened, — and her character would shine forth 
before the eyes of mankind benign in its beauty and luminous 
in its glory. It was a lofty sentiment uttered by Danton, the 
Titan of the French Revolution, — a man whose capacious soul 
was darkened by scepticism, agitated by passions, and polluted 
by crime — but occasionally lit up and expanded by flashes of 
true nobility, — it was a lofty sentiment he uttered, when, in the 
hour of France's danger, he exclaimed in the convention, 
" let my name be blighted, let my country be free." May a 
similar sentiment pervade your bosoms — and may you ever be 
ready to sacrifice your personal glory to the good of mankind. 



IR.l' ■Qj 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




